1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for interactive medical monitoring of patients by health care providers; for the gathering, analysis, storage, and presentation of patient data for use by health care providers; and for the providing of interaction between patients and health care providers at diverse locations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Effective treatment of many chronic and some acute illnesses requires frequent contact between the patients and clinicians. This frequent monitoring can significantly reduce the rate of complications and medical deterioration, and can improve the return to, and maintenance of, health of the patient. As a result, these patients experience fewer hospitalizations, improved level of health and a reduction in the cost of care provided to them.
Delivering close monitoring to outpatients is difficult to accomplish. Long-term hospitalization is not an option because it confines patients to a hospital. Frequent outpatient clinic visits present numerous logistical obstacles, which also makes it impractical. For this reason, there has been an effort to develop systems, which employ advances in the fields of computers and telecommunications, to monitor patients in their home. In general two types of systems have been developed: “Video-based,” which allow a clinician to conduct an interview with a patient using a video telecommunication system; and “Store-and-Forward” based, in which specific questions are sent to the patient either in an audio or text format, and are then either played or displayed in the patient's house using a specialized communication device. The “Store-and-Forward” device then records the patient's response to the questions and forwards them back to a central computer.
The Video-based and Store-and-Forward based systems suffer from several key deficiencies. Video-based systems require an expensive specialized telecommunication device in the patient's home, and often require high bandwidth service (e.g., a T1connection) between the central device and the patient's home for efficient operation. The patient must be trained to use the system, which may be an obstacle since patients who are chronically ill often suffer from multiple co-morbidities, which affect their mobility and dexterity including heart failure, pulmonary disease, peripheral vascular disease and neurological deficits, and other conditions which might make training more difficult. Additionally, such a system requires installation in the patient's home. This limits the ease and speed with which the system can be set up and used. Even if installation is a minor obstacle, Video-based systems must be transported by the patient if they travel away from home. Finally, Video-based system requires real-time interaction between the patient and clinician and thus limits the clinician to interacting with one patient at a time, which reduces the number of patients that a clinician is able to manage.
Store-and-Forward systems also require an in-home telecommunications device and/or Internet access. These systems require training to use, and cannot be easily transported if the patient travels away from home. Store-and-Forward systems also use pre-set questions that do not change in response to the patient's answers. Additionally, the audio-based Store-and-Forward devices use synthesized or unfamiliar voices to present the questions to the patient, highlighting the impersonal nature of the interaction.
Given the limitations of current telemonitoring devices, it would be desirable to have a system that enables daily monitoring of patients without the need for specialized equipment in the patient's home, and which presents the appearance, to the patient, of a more personal medical interaction.